When you yawn, someone next to you will highly likely yawn. But did you know that smile is also contagious? Be happy and other people around you will tend to be happy. Surround yourself with a jolly batch and you will find yourself smiling.
Researchers from Harvard and other universities studied how social networks affect someone’s happiness. The study concluded that happiness behaves like a virus and spreads from one person to another even without direct contact.
Five thousand subjects participated in the survey together with their 50000 connections of family, officemates, friends, and other acquaintances. The proponents asked these people about subjective perception of happiness for the last two decades.
The British Medical Journal cites in a study that the happiness of one person is affected by others around him. One can be happy towards a person and that person’s might spread to his uncle, auntie, and other people. Unhappiness on the other hand does not spread as fast.
The American Heart Association suggests screening and close monitoring of heart patients for depression. Studies show that people who had a heart attack or those with heart conditions are three fold more prone to have depression.
Statistics published in some journals also show that only 50 % of heart doctors monitor and treat their patients for fighting their depression. It also states that not all patients diagnosed with depression are getting proper care and treatment.
Depression may play a major role in the quality of life of a heart patient. Untreated depression may result to poorer daily practices like skipping of prescribed medications, not following of the designed rehabilitation program, or not following the recommended diet.
The study also emphasized the importance of the participation of the whole health care team to determine if the patient is suffering from depression.